The Société Congolaise de Banque (also known as Socobanque), known from 1970 successively as Banque du Peuple, Banque Zaïroise du Commerce Extérieur, and eventually Banque Congolaise du Commerce Extérieur, was a bank based in Léopoldville, then Kinshasa, Congo, from 1947 to 2002.
The Socobanque was established in 1947 by the Brussels-based Banque de Reports et de Dépôts (BRD) as its affiliate in the Belgian Congo.[1] It came under control of the Banque Lambert as the latter took over the BRD in 1953.
In 1961, Banque Lambert fostered the creation of the Geneva-based French: Société financière pour les pays d'outre-mer (SFOM) with the aim of pooling its shareholders' investments in Africa;